cpadmin@publicbroadcasting.netNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Joel Rose covers the northeast for the National Desk out of NPR's New York bureau.Rose's reporting often focuses on criminal justice, technology and culture. He's interviewed grieving parents after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, resettled refugees in Buffalo, and a lineup of musicians that includes Solomon Burke, Tom Waits and Arcade Fire.Rose collaborated with NPR's Planet Money podcast for a story on smart guns. He was part of NPR's award-winning coverage of Pope Francis's visit to the US. He's also contributed to breakings news coverage of the mass shooting at Mother Bethel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath, and major protests after the deaths of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Eric Garner in New York.Before coming to NPR, Rose held a number of jobs in public radio. He spent a decade in Philadelphia, including six years as a reporter at member station WHYY. He was also a producer at KQED in San FranciscoNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Joel RoseSun, 24 Jul 2016 11:16:30 +0000Joel Rosehttp://wrti.org
Joel Rose On May 11, Carla Bley celebrated her 80th birthday with a concert in New York. She could have played any of her compositions that have become jazz standards, or a piece from her new record. But Bley did something riskier: an untested piece she'd only just finished. "This was the perfect opportunity to play it," she says plainly.Recognized last year as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, Bley is one of few women to have exerted a consistent influence on the male-dominated world of modern jazz for half a century. She was 3 years old when she learned to play piano from her father, who was a piano teacher and choirmaster in Oakland, Calif. Bley remembers writing her first piece of music for her father when she was only 6."He gave me a sheet of music paper," she says, "and he said, 'You just put dots. And depending on where you put the dots, that's the note you're gonna hear.' So the next lesson I showed up with the page full of dots. It was like a starry sky. And he saidAt 80, Carla Bley Keeps Looking Toward The Next Compositionhttp://wrti.org/post/80-carla-bley-keeps-looking-toward-next-composition
9090 as http://wrti.orgThu, 19 May 2016 21:15:00 +0000At 80, Carla Bley Keeps Looking Toward The Next CompositionJoel RoseIt was 30 years ago today that a single American hostage was killed by terrorists during the hijacking of a cruise ship by pro-Palestinian terrorists in the Mediterranean Sea. Leon Klinghoffer's death was the inspiration for a controversial opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, composed by John Adams, with a libretto by Alice Goodman and directed by Peter Sellars.Klinghoffer's daughters, Ilsa and Lisa Klinghoffer, still object to his portrayal in that work. Now they're telling their own version of the story, by donating the family's photographs and documents to an institution in New York.Ilsa Klinghoffer says she and her sister saved everything, including dozens of photos: from their parents' wedding, the Jersey Shore and the dinner parties they liked to throw. "They were the most glamorous couple," she recalls. "And they supported each other, in sickness and in health."The Klinghoffer sisters saved letters of condolence from heads of state and ordinary people all over the world. Lisa30 Years After Their Father's Murder, Klinghoffer Daughters Step Onto Their Own Stagehttp://wrti.org/post/30-years-after-their-fathers-murder-klinghoffer-daughters-step-their-own-stage
8643 as http://wrti.orgThu, 08 Oct 2015 20:49:00 +000030 Years After Their Father's Murder, Klinghoffer Daughters Step Onto Their Own StageJoel Rose Say the name "Les Paul" to anybody born after 1960, and they'll probably think you're talking about an electric guitar. But the musician and inventor, who was born 100 years ago Tuesday, was also an accomplished jazz guitarist. Paul was never happier than when playing for a live audience."In fact," former bandmate Lou Pallo says, "he would go on some jobs and he would say, 'See, I'm not a guitar. Here I am. I'm Les Paul!'"Pallo shared the stage with Paul every Monday night for close to three decades. They played a bit of everything Paul had done over his career, including country, pop and jazz. Pallo says that as a musician, Paul played with a rare amount of feeling."He loved playing the melody, and that is very hard to do," Pallo says. "He did 'Over The Rainbow' so pretty. I never heard anyone do it like Les did it."Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He got his start playing and singing country music on the radio in the morning and playing jazz at night. HeThe Man Before The Guitar: Remembering Les Paul At 100http://wrti.org/post/man-guitar-remembering-les-paul-100
8397 as http://wrti.orgTue, 09 Jun 2015 21:14:00 +0000The Man Before The Guitar: Remembering Les Paul At 100Joel RoseThe Metropolitan Opera in New York is bracing for one of the more controversial productions in its history. Since its first performance more than 20 years ago, some critics have charged that composer John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer is anti-Israel, and even anti-Semitic. But the opera's supporters dispute that. They argue that Klinghoffer is a dramatic masterpiece that deserves to make its Met debut on Monday.The title character is Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish man in a wheelchair who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists after they hijacked a cruise ship in 1985. The events on the ship form the basic narrative of the opera. But it also digresses into the historical roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — from the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, all the way back to the Old Testament. Klinghoffer's creators knew it was going to be controversial."We discussed it," librettist Alice Goodman says. "Not, 'Is this going to upset people?' But, 'Are we making the rightTwenty Years Later, 'Klinghoffer' Still Draws Protestshttp://wrti.org/post/twenty-years-later-klinghoffer-still-draws-protests
7782 as http://wrti.orgFri, 17 Oct 2014 20:05:00 +0000Twenty Years Later, 'Klinghoffer' Still Draws ProtestsJoel Rose Today marks 100 years since Sun Ra was born — or, as the musician might have put it, since he arrived on Earth. An influential jazz composer, keyboardist and bandleader, Sun Ra always insisted he was just visiting this planet."Since I don't consider myself as one of the humans, I'm a spiritual being myself," he said in A Joyful Noise, a documentary released in 1980.Ra dressed himself and his band in elaborate costumes that were part ancient Egypt, part science fiction. Sometimes he claimed to be from Saturn."I'm not part of history," he said. "I'm more a part of the mystery which is my story."Ra didn't like to talk about his childhood on Earth. In fact, the trail was nearly cold when biographer John Szwed started asking questions in the 1990s."He had a passport that said Saturn," Szwed recalls. "It had no birth dates."Eventually, Szwed did uncover some basic biographical facts about Sun Ra. Herman "Sonny" Blount was born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Ala. By the 1950s he had moved toSaturn Still Swings: Celebrating Sun Ra At 100http://wrti.org/post/saturn-still-swings-celebrating-sun-ra-100
7325 as http://wrti.orgThu, 22 May 2014 07:28:00 +0000Saturn Still Swings: Celebrating Sun Ra At 100Joel Rose On a recent Sunday afternoon, 15 members of the Renaissance Street Singers gathered under a bridge in New York's Central Park. With little fanfare, they launched into a free, two-hour concert of music by Palestrina, des Prez and other composers who lived more than 500 years ago.The Renaissance Street Singers have been performing sacred music in public spaces for 40 years. On city sidewalks, in train stations, in public parks — anywhere they can find an audience. But these singers insist that their mission is not a religious one. The group consists mostly of self-described atheists who nonetheless share a deep reverence for the hymns, psalms and motets of the 16th century."It's simple, un-gussied music," says John Hetland, founder and director of the Renaissance Street Singers. "It's not anything showy. It's just beautiful music."Hetland says he's loved this music ever since he was a child growing up in Wisconsin, where his father was a Lutheran minister who taught his children to singAtheists Take Old Hymns Out Of The Chapel And Into The Streetshttp://wrti.org/post/atheists-take-old-hymns-out-chapel-and-streets
6370 as http://wrti.orgSun, 25 Aug 2013 16:03:00 +0000Atheists Take Old Hymns Out Of The Chapel And Into The StreetsJoel RoseAlbert Murray, the influential writer and critic who helped found Jazz at Lincoln Center, died Sunday at home in Harlem. He was 97 years old. Duke Ellington once described him as the "unsquarest person I know."For Murray, jazz and blues were more than just musical forms. They were a survival technique — an improvisatory response to hardship and uncertainty, as he told NPR in 1997: "You don't know how many bars you have, but however many of them you can make swing, the better off you are. That's about it."Murray was born outside Mobile, Ala. He attended the Tuskegee Institute, where he became friends with Ralph Ellison, author of the Invisible Man.Murray's writing career didn't begin in earnest until 1970, with a provocative book of essays called The Omni-Americans, which argued that black culture and American culture are deeply intertwined. He went on to publish several novels and a memoir and co-wrote Count Basie's autobiography. Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit src="http://wwwAlbert Murray, Writer And Co-Founder Of Jazz At Lincoln Center, Dies http://wrti.org/post/albert-murray-writer-and-co-founder-jazz-lincoln-center-dies
6347 as http://wrti.orgMon, 19 Aug 2013 21:57:00 +0000Albert Murray, Writer And Co-Founder Of Jazz At Lincoln Center, Dies